


It Started with a Letter

by LadyKiwi



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Harley Quinn (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Poison Ivy (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Basketball, Cheating, Complicated Relationships, DC Students, Daddy Issues, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Love, Marvel Teachers, Pen Pals, Romance, Secrets, Slow Burn, harlivy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKiwi/pseuds/LadyKiwi
Summary: As if life wasn't hard enough, Harley finds herself being partnered up with a prissy student from Arkham Academy for her Penpal assignment in English class. However, she never would've guessed just how big of an issue it would cause.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Joker (DCU)/Harleen Quinzel, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know I said before I'd be coming out with this months ago, but school was hellish and I was too stressed to write anything. But hey, things have finally settled down, so now I'm back, and I'm happy to be so!
> 
> But anyway, here it is folks! My next (non-oneshot) Harlivy fanfic! I hope you enjoy it 😊
> 
> xox Kiwi

It was chilly that Friday morning, and the trees on her path to school all had red and orange leaves. By the time Harley lugged herself through the doors of her school, it was five minutes to the first-period bell. Scurrying to her locker, Harley quickly stuffed her red and black bomber jacket into the locker and exchanged her biology textbook for her history one.

Suddenly, the door of her locker was slammed shut, nearly catching her hand. Just as she expected, when she looked at the cause for her almost injured hand, her eyes landed in the slim figure of her boyfriend, Jack.

“Hi, Puddin,” she greeted with a smile.

“Hey, Harley-girl,” Jack smiled back at her as he leaned against her locker. “Did you do the calculus homework?”

“Uhh, yeah, I did. I stayed up all night finishing it, actually.”

“Ooh, do you mind sharing yours with me? I forgot my textbook here last night,” he asked like it would’ve been no big deal.

Harley knew how Jack could get when he was denied something, and she was not interested in dealing with a frustrated Jack anytime soon. “Sure. You can copy it during lunch.”

“Thank you so much, darling.” He left a sloppy kiss on her cheek before turning to walk away.

Just as she watched him turn the corner of the hall, the bell signaling that first period has started rung through the school. Sighing, Harley quickly locked her locker and rushed to her history class.

Luckily, the classroom wasn’t too far, and she made it to class while everyone was still settling down. She went to go take her usual seat next to her friend, Lena.

“Hey, Lena,” she said as she dropped her bag on the floor next to her desk and took a seat.

“Harley,” Lena replied, letting her know she was acknowledged even though she had her face in a book.

“Hey, where’s Bruce and Selina?” Harley asked when she noticed the two seats behind them were empty.

Rising her head from her book, Lena took a quick look around before continuing to read. “In a bathroom stall, maybe. I don’t know.”

“It’s a b—”

Suddenly, all the students quieted down when Mr. Rogers stood from his seat and moved to stand in the center of the class.

“Welcome back to another day of history. Today, we’ll be learning about the civil war…”

Harley started to tune out the teacher after a few minutes, and when she looked over at Lena, she noticed the girl wasn’t paying any attention to the lesson either.

“Damn, you were the last person I’d think would be on their phone in the middle of class,” she whispered to the girl next to her.

“Rogers’ history lectures make me want to fall asleep. So, I’ve settled on self-teaching during my free time. Also, Kara’s texting me about how she forgot her chemistry work at my place last night, which reminds me.” Lena dug through her bag until she pulled out a notebook to hand over to Harley. “You’re in her chemistry class at third period, can you give this to her?”

“Sure,” Harley agreed, taking the notebook to stuff into her own bag.

“Bruce, Selina, glad you two decided to join us,” Mr. Rogers said as everyone in the class directed their attention to the two late students.

“Our bad,” Selina said as she foreign a look of innocence before sitting down at the desk behind Harley.

“Sorry, coach Roger. It won’t happen again,” Bruce apologized more sincerily before going to his own seat next to Selina.

“You better not be late like this for football practice today,” Mr. Rogers warned.

“I won’t, coach.”

Once the lesson was continued, and the rest of the class focus was to the board at the front, Lena turned around in her seat with a smirk. “Well, didn’t you two have fun.”

“Oh please. I have more dignity than to do something like that at school,” Selina retorted. “For your information, I was late because I was helping Diana with something.”

“And what about you, Bruce?” Lena asked the boy behind her. “What’s your excuse.”

“Dick is still pissy about me electing Floyd to be co-captain of the football team,” Bruce answered.

“Jeeze, it’s been a month, tell him to get over it. We’re only juniors. We got another year before leaving this dump,” Harley said, rolling her eyes. She never understood how Bruce had put up with Dick for so long. Harley always thought the boy was so incredibly extra and clingy, and though she didn’t usually mind his presence, there were times she wanted nothing more than to duct tape his mouth.

“Harley, Lena, do you mind turning back around? Or would you four like to share your conversation with the rest of the class?” Mr. Rogers interrupted them. And though he meant to sound stern, he still sounded way too nice.

“Sorry, sir,” Lena apologized as she turned her attention to the front.

“What she said,” Harley said soon after, quickly looking to the front again, but instead of listening to the lecture, she daydreamed until the end of class.

When the period had ended, everyone began packing up to head off to their next class. As Harley started making her way to data management with Bruce, the two noticed Jack standing next to the entrance of the classroom.

“Harley-girl!” he greeted with a very wide grin. “Bruce,” he then acknowledged with slightly narrowed eyes.

“Hey, Puddin,” Harley greeted back with a quick kiss, not giving any mind to the gagging reaction from Bruce.

“Can we all go inside now? I’d like to keep my breakfast in my stomach,” Bruce asked. He had never liked Jack, and after he and Harley started dating last year, he’s liked him even less.

“Actually, I need to ask Harley something. Feel free to go inside though.”

Sighing, Bruce turned to go inside. “Fine, I’ll see you two inside. Shout out if you need me, Harl,” he stated before walking away.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Harley questioned when she brought her attention back to Jack.

“I need your calculus work now,” he answered, but the sternness in his voice made Harley feel a bit uncomfortable. “I’m going out for lunch, so I can’t copy it then.”

“What? You’ve already ditched me all of last week,” she pointed out, upset that he wasn’t putting any effort to spend time with her.

“It’s not my fault your friends hate me,” he argued. “Look, just let me copy your work. We can hang out some other time.”

“Ha. And when is that going to be? Next month?” Harley spoke sarcastically.

For the past month, she and Jack had been arguing more and more often. And though she hated fighting with him, Jack has been growing more distant and treated her with no respect, which annoyed her to no end. She liked him a lot, she really did, but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could put up with this behavior.

“Stop bitching, will you? I still spend plenty of time with you—”

“That’s a lie, and you know it.”

“Jesus, Harley, can we just talk about this later?” He let a loud sigh, obviously not interested in listening to any more of what Harley had to say.

“Sure, we can talk later,” Harley replied as she quickly walked past him to go into class.

“Hey, you’re forgetting about the homework,” he said, a bit louder than she would’ve liked, as he wrapped a hand around her wrist tightly.

Harley expected herself to be pulled back by him, but the moment never came. Instead, she felt another hand on her arm, and Jack’s hand get yanked away.

“If you got something to say, then say it. You don’t have to lay a hand on her,” a familiar voice said.

Harley instantly knew who it was.

Looking back, she watched as Floyd, who’s been her close friend since they were practically babies, held Jack’s wrist in his hand and glared down at the slightly shorter, green-haired boy.

“Who are you to speak? She’s my girlfriend,” Jack defended himself.

“And I’m her friend,” Floyd snarled back.

“Correction, she’s your only friend,” Jack said as he stood almost toe-to-toe with the taller boy, trying to dare him to make a move.

“That’s by choice,” Floyd said, taking a step closer too. Also trying to aggravate him. “But at least I don’t treat her like a toy to be played with then tossed away.”

“Oh, you’re being overdramatic.”

“Overdramatic? You think me caring for my friend is overdramatic? This is your girlfriend we’re talking about. Do you not care for her too?”

“Exactly, she’s my girlfriend, not yours. So, don’t be going around telling me how I should treat her,” Jack started glaring harder as though he was trying to burn a hole through the boy.

“Stop treating her like property,” Floyd snapped, bunching Jack’s shirt into his fists as he pushed him against the lockers.

“Floyd, stop. You’re going to hurt him,” Harley finally spoke up from behind them.

“Lawton! What are you doing?” Mr. Barton asked when he came out of the classroom due to the loud bang from the lockers.

Quickly spinning around at the voice of a teacher, Lawton let go of Jack and gave his attention to Mr. Barton.

“I-I’m sorry, sir,” Floyd apologized.

Mr. Barton looked between the three. “Does anyone mind telling what is going on?”

“Nothing, now that you’re here,” Jack mumbled his remark under his breath.

“Anyone?” the teacher asked as the hall continued to be silent, none of the three willing to speak.

Mr. Barton stared at each student individually. Though he only knew a limited amount of things about Floyd, he knew well of Harley and Jack. Harley was the captain of the girl’s basketball team, which was coached by his girlfriend. He knew Harley wasn’t big on starting drama and causing problems, and if she did ever get in trouble for something, it wouldn’t be for anything too bad. Just a small prank on her friends and classmates, or something along those lines.

Jack, however, was a different story.

No teacher was fond of him. Jack constantly talked back, purposefully disrupted classes, picked fights with both his classmates and teachers, and had no respect for anyone. Mr. Barton was aware of his and Harley’s relationship, and from time to time, he’d see the boy cause a frown to appear on the girl’s face. So, he had a feeling Floyd was only trying to help Harley with Jack’s inappropriate behavior.

With a heavy sigh, Mr. Barton made a decision. A biased one, but a decision nonetheless. “Floyd, please go to your class. Harley and Jack get in inside, or else I’ll have you sit out in the hallway.”

Everyone was surprised nobody was going to get sent to the office, but none of them wanted to speak up about it. Nodding their heads, the three students went to their classes quietly.

\-----XxX-----

“Heya losers,” Harley said to her group of friends as she and Kara sat down at their usual cafeteria table. “Guess what.”

“What?” Dick asked after swallowing a big bite of his sandwich.

“During chemistry, Mr. Banner had us partner up for a stupid lab, and Kara ditched me to pair up with Diana. She didn’t even hesitate!” Harley spoke as though it was an outrageous story. “I had to partner with Alexis K., and that bitch fucking hates me!”

Laughing, Selina tried her best to subtle down enough to talk. “First of all, what did you expect? Kara used to have the biggest crush on Diana. She’d probably still pounce on the chance to fuck her if she got it.”

“Excuse me, Kara’s current girlfriend is right here,” Lena decided to point out presence but was ignored by everyone but Kara, who gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder and peck on the lips.

“And second of all, I’m not surprised that Alexis hates you, cause she hates everyone. She’s probably less of a people person than Jack,” Selina continued saying.

“Who’s less than a people person than Jack?” Diana asked as she sat down next to Harley, who was staring at the lunch she had just placed on the table as though she hadn’t eaten in days.

“My gods, just take it,” Diana rolled her eyes, switching her pizza slices for Harley’s stack of chocolate chip pancakes. “Harley! Are you trying to get diabetes before your mid ages or something? Who adds this much maple syrup and whipped cream to their pancakes?”

“That’s your question? I’ve been wondering who in the right mind packs pancakes for lunch?” Bruce voiced as he looked at the monstrosity of sugar on top of sugar that was once Harley’s lunch.

“Hey! Don’t mock it until you try it,” Harley defended through a mouthful of pizza. “I promise you, Diana, it’ll be the greatest thing you’ll ever eat.”

“And maybe the last meal,” Kara joked.

Sighing, Diana began cutting up a small bite of pancake. “You’re lucky I don’t have cheer practice today.”

Everyone then began breaking off into their own small conversations within the group, but after a while, Selina remembered some gossip she heard from earlier.

“Hey, Harl, what happened at second period?” Selina asked, causing everyone’s attention at the table to be on Harley.

“Oh, you know,” Harley said nonchalantly. “Just Jack being Jack.”

Rolling his eyes, Bruce butted in, saying, “Jack was making Harley give him her homework so he could copy it. Though I wasn’t in the hall for long, but my guess is that he started to get a bit too handsy.”

“That bastard. Just you wait until I get my hands on him, he’s going to wish he wasn’t born,” Selina cursed.

“Hey, hey, I called dibs last week when he blew Harley off after promising to go on a date,” Kara complained.

“What about me?” Diana joined the conversation. “I said I’ll be the one to beat his ass last month.”

“Well, too bad. Neither of you guys did it when you said you would,” Selina argued.

“We were waiting for Harley’s consent,” Kara and Diana said instantaneously.

“Hey! Speaking of Harley, I don’t want anybody beating up my boyfriend,” Harley interrupted their petty argument. “Besides, Floyd already helped me out.”

“Thank you, Floyd,” Diana mumbled before taking another bite of Harley’s overly sweet pancakes.

“You know, Harley, you could invite him to come and eat lunch with us sometime,” Selina said. “It’s not like we haven’t all met him before.”

“Yeah, and any friend of yours is a friend of ours,” Diana added.

“Oh, I have. He likes being alone,” Harley explained to them.

“You know, for a guy who’s such a lone wolf, he’s great at teamwork,” Bruce commented.

“That he is,” Harley agreed.

“Well, I’m fine with it being only us,” Dick said a bit bitterly from Bruce’s side.

“My God, get over it. You can try to be co-captain next year,” Lena told him, tired of his endless bitterness. “You’re being petty.”

Dick stuck his tongue out at her in response before going back to finishing his lunch.

“Speaking of co-captains… Harley? Do you know who’s co-captain for the basketball team?” Kara questioned, eager to know whether or not she was co-captain.

“Coach Romanoff and I had a small discussion not too long ago,” Harley revealed, but soon smirked as she looked at Kara. “But I told her I’d keep it a secret until next week when the new season starts.”

“But you could try and ask her, Kara. We have her next period in biology,” Harley suggested, though she knew the other girl wouldn’t do so.

“Yeah, no thank you. I’ll just wait. She’s a bit scary.”

“Oh, I just remembered!” Selina suddenly spoke, interrupting their conversation. “Who’s going to Ozzie’s Halloween party next Friday?”

“Bruce and I will be leaving that day for a weekend retreat with our families, remember?” Dick responded.

“I might be a bit late, but I’ll be there,” Diana answered.

“Lena and I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Kara beamed.

“Wait, what? I never agreed to this,” Lena objected.

“Too bad. You’re going with me, and we’re going to have a couple costume,” Kara stated, causing a pleading look for help to make its way on Lena’s face.

“Count me in,” Harley said.

“Great,” Selina clapped her hands together and smiled. “Now that that’s settled, Harley you’re riding with me cause I need someone to help me with my costume.”

“Of course I am. My only use is to serve you, oh great Selina Kyle,” Harley sarcastically commented.

“Hey, sarcasm is my thing.”

“Oh trust me, we all know that.”

\-----XxX-----

The rest of their lunch went on like normal, and when the bell rang to signal the end of the period, everyone parted ways to attend their remaining classes. Which, for Harley, was biology, calculus, and English.

Biology class with Ms. Romanoff was pretty much the same as it was every day for Harley, but sadly, she couldn’t say the same for her calculus class. She had Mr. L. Odinson, who’s also known as the student’s least favorite teacher. His classes were constantly getting more boring with each passing day, and the constant bickering between him and Jack gave Harley a bigger headache than she’d like to admit.

When she realized she made it through her calculus class, Harley felt as though she had just finished a prison sentence and was released back into the world.

“Jesus, Harley,” Dick laughed as he watched her dramatic reaction to leaving the classroom. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“No, but Odinson is,” Bruce butted in with a chuckle.

“Exactly,” Harley nodded her head. “But at least that’s over with, and there’s only one period left.”

“Which you’re incredibly lucky for because you have the better Odinson,” Bruce commented, though it sounded a bit like a jealous complaint.

“I know, Thor is basically like the teacher from Dead Poets Society. But better,” Harley said.

“Yeah… I got no clue how he and Loki are siblings. They’re such opposites,” Dick wondered.

“You can say that again.”

Soon after Harley finished her sentence, a second bell rang signifying the start of the last period.

“Fuck, we’re late,” Bruce swore.

“Shit, yeah. I’ll see you guys on Monday.” Harley said as she quickly waved goodbye to the boys before rushing to her English class.

When she made it to her classroom, the sound of her closing the door to the room caught everyone’s attention.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Mr. Odinson,” she bashfully smiled, walking to her seat next to Floyd, which also happened to be behind Selina and Kara.

“It’s okay, Harley,” Mr. Odinson said as he continued placing a sheet of paper on everyone’s desk. “I was just explaining the assignment we’re starting today.”

“Now, class, as I was saying, this is an assignment that will continue until the end of the semester. At the end, you all will be writing a reflection to explain what you have learned about the world, society, and about yourselves.”

Raising her hand, Harley asked, “What is this assignment exactly?”

“Our class is going to be exchanging penpal letters with an English class at Arkham Academy. Our class will send our letters every Monday, and we’ll get receive letters ours on Fridays.”

“Oh lovely, us Gotham high schoolers have to talk with those prep kids."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm here, I'm queer, and I'm back with another chapter! So, I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> xox Kiwi

On the walk home from school, Harley felt the vibrate of her phone in her pocket. As she brought her phone up to eye level to read the text, she noticed it was from Selina.

 **From Selina:  
** _Hey, don’t know if you left school yet, but we’re all going to hang out at Bruce’s after the football practice. Wanna join?_

 **To Selina:  
** _Sorry, can’t. I got work today :(_

Harley sighed as she replied. She wanted nothing more than to be able to hang with her friends, laughing and joking with everyone, but she knew that could never happen. She needed the money, and even when she wasn’t working, school always found a way to spoil her free time.

“Harley, hey!” A voice called from behind her.

Spinning around, she spotted Floyd jogging to catch up with her. She decided to stop walking to let the boy make it to her. “Hey, Floyd. Wait, aren’t you supposed to be at football practice?”

“Coach let me skip today cause my sister’s sick, and I need to get home before my mom leaves for work to watch after her,” Floyd explained.

“Also, no clue if you know this already, but your friends are looking for you,” he told her as they started walking again.

“I know Selina texted me already. I told her I couldn’t,” she replied.

“What was your excuse for getting away this time? A crazy clown came and kidnapped you?” Floyd joked, causing Harley to smack his arm in fake offense even though she was chuckling too.

“No, I said I had work,” she admitted.

“Lame.”

“Hey! It’s the truth.”

“Is it? You haven’t told a single one of them about your life at home,” Floyd said, his voice more serious and his teasing manner now gone.

“They know about my mother,” Harley responded, her smile now gone also.

“Look, I know I say this a lot, and I know I don’t know your friends well,” he began saying. “But I think you should tell them. I’m sure they’ll accept you and maybe even offer to help you out with some things.”

“Help how? And with what? They won’t be able to do anything, so it’s pointless,” Harley spoke, her tone a bit defensive.

“I don’t know. I said mayb—”

“Can we just drop this?” Harley pleadingly asked, cutting her friend off mid-sentence.

Looking at the girl, Floyd could see the sadness on her face. So slowly, he nodded his head and changed the subject.

“So… What are you going to dress as for the Halloween party?”

Glad for the change of topic, she answered, “Honestly? I’m not sure yet.”

“Well, since Jack is like a psychopathic maniac, I was thinking you should dress up as a doctor. Like a psychiatrist or something. It’d be a nice couple’s costume.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny, Floyd,” she sarcastically said with a roll of her eyes.

“I know. I’m hilarious,” he agreed, accepting the mock compliment.

“Are you going to go?” Harley asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“No, when do I ever go to parties?” he replied.

“True,” Harley acknowledged. “I don’t think you’ve ever been to one.”

“It’s just not my scene,” he shrugged

“And it looks like it’s also my time to leave,” he soon added.

“Guess it is. I’ll see ya on Monday,” Harley said as she waved him goodbye.

“Bye,” she said back.

As Floyd turned left at the crosswalk and Harley kept going straight, she continued making her way home.

When Harley arrived at her house, she opened the front door to see the figure of a large man on the living room couch. Sighing, she walked toward the couch, picking up the empty liquor bottles off the floor along the way. Placing the bottles on the coffee table, she took the bunched up blanket at the man’s feet and draped it over his body. And just as she was about to walk away, the feel of a dry hand wrapping around her wrist stopped her dead in her tracks.

“Harleen? Why aren’t you at school?” he managed to ask coherently, surprising her. She couldn’t even remember the last time she heard him talk without slurring his words or getting angry and yelling loudly at anyone or anything.

“School ended, dad,” she answered his question when he released his hand from her wrist, and she had turned around again to face him. “It’s almost four.”

“Oh, great! We can watch a movie or something before I leave,” her dad suggested, more happy than usual.

“Dad, you spend all day at home watching movies. And what do you mean before you leave?” Harley pointed out tiredly.

“I promised some buddies of mine that I’d meet them at the bar tonight.”

“Like you do every night?”

“It’s not like I have anything else to do,” he shrugged, not seeing the big deal. “Anyway, how about that movie?”

Sighing, Harley went to fetch him a glass of water before responding, “I have work, remember?”

“I don’t get why you’re working. You’re clothed, clean, and have a roof over your head. You’re fine,” he said after taking a sip of water when she handed it to him. “Take me, for example. I’m doing just fine, and I haven’t even had a job for over two years.”

“Sure, dad. Sure,” Harley agreed even though she didn’t really.

As she turned away again to leave to get changed in her room upstairs, she mumbled, “Though you and I both know that’s not true,” under her breath.

“What did you say?” Her father asked with irritation and quickly rising anger laced in his voice.

Most times, Harley would try her best to avoid a fight—or any interaction with her father really—but with her already dwindling energy and the knowledge that she’s most likely going to be late for work, she was becoming a bit irritated.

“I said you and I both know what you’re saying isn’t true,” she repeated, louder and clearer than before.

“And how is it not? Are you not happy? Are you not enjoying being fucking alive?” he screamed at her.

“I’ve been working my ass off for two years to make money to feed the both of us because you’ve been spending all of mom’s money on booze. And I just know that one day we won’t be able to pay our bills, and we won’t have any choice but to live out on the streets. So no, I’m not happy,” Harley screamed back, frustrated with her father’s behavior.

“You can’t just put the blame on me for everything! We aren’t broke, and I’m still giving you a home. I didn’t even tell you to get a job. You went off and did it yourself!” he argued.

“Own up to your mistakes for once! I don’t want to blame you, nor will I ever want to, but this,” Harley motioned around them with her hands. “This is because of you. And you’re just standing here being defensive rather than trying to fix the problem or seeking help.”

“I’m done being the one who’s working their ass off to fix your mistakes,” Harley finally added before heading upstairs, leaving her father to stand in the middle of the living room in silence.

She quickly dumped the contents of her school bag on her desk before stuffing a set of regular clothes in there and changing into her work uniform. Swinging her bag over her shoulder, she walked back down the stairs and headed straight to the door, ignoring her father’s yelling as she passed him.

\-----XxX-----

Grabbing two diner menus, she led the couple that had just walked in to an empty table. After handing them both a menu, she went to the back where the cooks were.

“Hey, Harley? Mind getting these to table eight?” Frank, one of the diner’s chefs and a good friend of Harley’s, asked when he saw her.

“Sure thing,” Harley said as she took the two plates on the counter.

Heading out to where everyone was seated, she made it to table eight, where she instantly noticed two very familiar faces.

“Umm, I have your two soft tacos and fried chicken with waffles,” Harley announced as she placed the food in front of the couple.

“Really, Harley? Are you not even going to say hi? And here I thought I was your favorite person,” Ms. Romanoff teased the girl.

Feeling a bit awkward about running into her two teachers outside of school caused the blonde to stand still in silence. “Uh.”

“If this is about earlier, you don’t have to worry about it. There’s nothing to be awkward about, and I won’t interfere in your personal life unless you want me to,” Mr. Barton spoke from across Ms. Romanoff.

“Oh, no, no. I just don’t often see my teachers while I’m at work,” Harley hurriedly explained.

“Well, that’s understandable. I always used to avoid my teachers too when I saw them ou—”

“Wait, what? Clint, what were you talking about before?” Ms. Romanoff asked, cutting off her long-term boyfriend.

“I—” Mr. Barton began explaining but was quickly interrupted.

“ Oh, sorry, my bad. I’m bad at greetings sometimes. Good evening coach Romanoff and Mr. Barton. Fancy seeing you two here.”

“Harley…what is Clint talking about?” Ms. Romanoff asked, not giving into Harley’s attempt to divert her attention elsewhere.

Knowing getting out of this predicament was nearly impossible, Harley sighed and took a seat beside the teacher.

“I was on my way to data management with Bruce when we ran into Jack,” she began.

“Napier? Your boyfriend?” Ms. Romanoff asked, to which Harley nodded in response.

“He needed to copy my calculus homework cause he didn’t do his, but he started to get all forceful, and I got upset. Next thing I know, we were arguing, and Floyd had to interfered to try and help me out,” Harley continued.

“I’m guessing a fight broke out?” Ms. Romanoff assumed.

“Sort of. Mr. Barton stopped it before anything too bad happened,” Harley nervously said, hoping not to make it a big deal.

Placing a reassuring hand on the girl’s shoulder, Ms. Romanoff told her, “You know I’m not a fan of Jack—”

“I’m not either, by the way. Just putting it out there,” Mr. Barton quickly said, interrupting his girlfriend.

“Oh, trust me, I know,” Harley stated. “If you liked Jack, even the slightest bit, you wouldn’t have let Floyd off the hook for almost beating him up.”

“Anyway, what I was saying,” Ms. Romanoff cleared her throat and began again, bringing the other two’s focus back on her. “I don’t like the thought of you being with Jack because I don’t believe he’s a good influence. However, I don’t want to control your life, Harley, nor am I planning on it. But I just want you to know that if you need any help or are in any trouble, I’m always here for you to come to.”

Harley nodded with a small smile. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Ms. Romanoff gave her own smile with a slight hint of concern back to the girl.

“Now, if you two ladies don’t mind, I’m starving,” Mr. Barton said as he dug into his fried chicken and waffles. “Wow, this is great! Tell the cook I said they’re doing a fantastic job, Harley.”

She smiled widely with a bit of a chuckle and gave a nod as she started walking back toward the kitchen. “I’ll be sure to let him know, Mr. Barton.”

\-----XxX-----

When work was finished, she returned home to a dark and empty house, telling her that her dad was definitely out getting drunk like usual. Slugging herself up the stairs, she dropped her bag and face-planted into her bed with an exhausted groan.

“Fuck my life!” She screamed, feeling a sudden outburst of emotions as she pounded her fist against her bed before getting up again.

Wiping away the tears that had ran down her cheeks, she grabbed her pajamas to change into. Stripping of her current clothes, she dressed herself again and trailed her way into the bathroom. After brushing her teeth and doing her basic necessities, she went to lay back in bed, this time more properly.

She let out a sigh as she closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep. However, seconds felt minutes, and minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like a lifetime was passing by, yet she couldn’t find herself falling asleep no matter how tired she was. Groaning, she sat up to hunch over the edge of her bed as the day’s events flashed through her mind.

It was then when she remembered her earlier English assignment, and deciding to get it done and over with, she went to grab a pencil and notebook off her desk nearby and flipped to an empty page.

_Dear mr or miss high class,_

She started the letter but then took a moment to think of what to write before continuing.

_Do you ever just lay in bed but not sleep? Like your mind is wide awake, searching for something to put it at ease? …Or maybe that’s not common over on the other side of Gotham. I mean, I’ve always wondered what it was like over there. Do you struggle with the problems we commoners have? Or are you all living in peaceful bliss? You all seem so perfect and prim and having everything you could ever want at the tip of your fingers. It’s fascinating, really._

_So, here’s my question to you, mr or miss high class:_

_What is it really like on the other side of Gotham?_

She stopped writing as she came to the end. It was almost instinctive to sign it off with her name, but for some reason, it didn’t feel right to do so. Thinking hard, she decided to leave it anonymous. It wasn’t like they’d ever be meeting anytime soon.

_From,_

_A complete stranger_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, it means a lot <3
> 
> Like always, kudos and comments are forever appreciated, and feel free to follow my [Tumblr](https://theawkwardkiwi.tumblr.com/) for updates on this fanfic and any future work of mine.


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